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Now, an Indian website for BPO matchmaking
Published on Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 01:08 in Sci-Tech » Tech section
Tags: Matrimonial, BPO , London
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London: The taboo of having unsociable working hours retracts many Indian males from marrying female call centre executives.
But this won't be the scene anymore, thanks to Bposhaadi.com - a website that offers to put female call centre staff in touch with possible suitors working in the BPOs.
With growing numbers of India's lady call centre workers reporting problems finding husbands, Bposhaadi.com certainly proves to be a saviour.
Bposhaadi.com derives its name from BPO, which stands for Business Process Outsourcing - as call centre work is known in India - and "shaadi", the Hindi word for marriage.
"It makes sense for call centre workers to meet other call centre workers because they understand each others'' pressures and what the job is really about. Apart from anything else, someone who works night shifts and sleeps during the day needs a partner with similar patterns of hours to socialise with," The Telegraph quoted Sanjeev Pahwa, the website''s founder, as saying.
This unique website is the first niche matrimonial site tailored for a particular profession. Pahwa said that the female call centre employees tend to acquire a worldly attitude because of their exposure to Western callers and they also earn high wages by Indian standards.
Call centres also tend to be mixed sex, with men and women working close to one another. Thus, the typical call centre worker tends to have a liberal, hedonistic lifestyle that does not always suit partners from more traditional backgrounds.
"They buy the latest gadgets, they eat well, they go for movies at 2 am, it's high living, high spending, because they earn well and have no responsibilities. This won't be compatible with someone who is cautious and wants security," said Pahwa.
He even blamed the Indian media of playing up the image of call centres as dens of iniquity, where casual couplings happen in cubicles and workers arrange late night assignations in the car park, which puts off many parents from getting a daughter in law working in a BPO.
Conservatives in India also claim the job is servile and demeaning, branding call centre workers "cyber-coolies". On bposhaadi.com, girls working in call centres can now meet someone from among its 14,000 members who understands that just because she works in a call centre, she is not a call girl. Sonia Singh, 23, a single call centre worker in Gurgaon, outside Delhi, said that a spouse who worked outside the industry would not accept the endless parties, picnics, retreats, and treks in the Himalayas that she now enjoyed with her colleagues.
"Even if my husband could accept this, I don''t want my in-laws cribbing that it''s not in their culture for a daughter in law to go to work at night," said Miss Singh, who logs mobile phone complaints from Britain. Ever since it was launched last year, almost a dozen couples have already been married after meeting on bposhaadi.com.
The latest success is computer engineer, Vikram Malhotra, 25, who has just got engaged. "I don''t think other girls could take this mad, crazy lifestyle, this parallel universe. I have found someone who will be doing the same hours as me," he said.
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